Tanaka was put on the spot for a special mission. And from what he heard from his upperclassman, if he fails, it meant they'll be saying goodbye to the Squad.

Pairing: None, but there might be if you try looking hard enough.dRating: PG-13 Notes: Drew this as a 2-panel comic at random then it ended up growing a story of its own. Haven't written anything worth posting lately, so this one is a desperate attempt. Checked, double checked, triple checked and hopefully it's worth reading now. Edited and corrected to the best of my abilities. WARNING though, still unbeta-ed.^^;;

~o~

-~ They could even Time Travel

Tanaka noticed that the backups were acting quite strange today. Been running around the Yuuhi base here and there, then stops, and continues on. He wondered if they're searching or getting ready for something.

Later, he saw Ippongi on the living room sofa, simply watching TV. Not bothered by whatever the two were doing.

"Senpai, Saito-san and Suzuki-san are..."

"... Leave 'em. They're getting ready for a special mission," he replies without looking, switching to a different channel with the RC, "Oh, better get ready too. Wear your best uniform or something, cause you'll be taking this one," turning and grins at the confused rookie.

"Special Mission?" Tanaka repeats, "And I don't have any other uniform, you know..." he crosses his arms, "Besides, Danchou hasn't briefed me about this- mission," he said, sounding sceptic. It was getting suspicious.

The leaders' grin widens, "Doumeki-danchou's on a day-off," this made Tanaka raise a brow. The Danchou doesn't like taking day-offs, and also, they're in HIS house. But where was he? "He has no idea about this 'Special Mission'," now it got more suspicious.

Was it the Danchou's Birthday? Cause it felt like that to him. It's like they're getting ready for a surprise party.

He felt the back-ups stood behind him, Saito on his right and Suzuki on his left, "Senpai... honestly, what's going on?" he knows the man well, Ippongi likes joking around specially when it's him. He ALWAYS gets picked on.

"We'll be borrowing a bit of Danchou's special supernatural powers for this..." It was Doumeki's specialty, cheering inside dreams, cheering anti-bodies, cheering the dead, teleporting, anything out of this world that money cannot buy to reach. The leader finally got bored, turns off the TV and stands up, "You'll be cheering alone, so if you fail this mission-" he walks towards Tanaka, lays a gloved hand on the rookies shoulder, and said ominously, "-we'll be saying good-bye to Ouendan."

It was that bad? "Did you say WE? That's a joke right?" the rookie nervously laughs and his Leader was silent, "Hey, he's joking right?" he turns to the two behind him who shook their heads.

Ippongi gave out a laugh and shook his head, "You should feel lucky, you're all ready to go! When it was me-" he trails off.

"- Ippongi was thrown out on the field without any idea that he was supposed to cheer," Saito said with a serious expression on his face. "But he did well, since he did the most natural thing Ouendan should do. To Cheer," Suzuki this time, saying it with pride.

Tanaka was getting nervous. He still had no idea what to do.

Another pat on the shoulder by his Leader, "Time to go!" then he was turned around and pushed towards the door.

"Go? Go where! And what will Saito-san and Suzuki-san do if I'm cheering alone!" Tanaka panics, Ippongi continued on pushing the struggling shorter man.

"We'll be taking you back home," the two back-ups said in unison as they followed behind their Leader and Rookie.

"Good luck, Tanaka-kun," Ippongi opens the door and pushes him out.

~o~

Tanaka was sure Ippongi pushed him outside of their base. He looks around his surroundings, no Yuuhi riverbank, not even their Yuuhi Ouendan base behind him.

He blinks, twice, thrice, removes his glasses, rubs his eyes, squints and returns his glasses and corrects it.

The view in front of him doesn't change. He was thrown out to an unfamiliar place. A dark alleyway in between tall buildings in an unknown city.

He was lost, he doesn't know who he'll cheer, no backups to keep him company... "Jeez, I wonder how Senpai felt when this happened," he recalled what Ippongi said earlier to calm himself down, but instead he felt pity for himself. He began walking the dark alleyways aimlessly, trying to find any clues on where he was.

He waited for anyone to call out for his aid, but it was silent. He's been lost for nearlly 5 minutes, he calculated, and still nothing. He feared he may have missed his chance to cheer...

"Bastards! Pick on somebody your own size!"

Tanaka looks up and became alert as he heard the voice, then ran to find where it came from.

~o~

"Own size? You! Hah! You're a bit shorter than that friend of yours you know," a voice said, mocking.

When Tanaka found where the voice was, he saw three huge thugs ganging up on two smaller people who were wearing suits. A badly beaten raven-haired guy was on his knees and was the one shouting at the thugs, then behind him was a fair-haired person he was trying to protect.

Were these the people he's supposed to cheer? He was unsure, since nobody was calling for Ouendan yet. He moves a bit closer, quietly, to get a better view. When he did, he noticed the raven-haired man's features looked too familiar... but he remembers it too differently.

Black messy hair, lightning-bolt shaped sideburns, weird looking eyebrows and partly torn up clothes. No doubt, it was their Danchou. Though he looked younger, smaller, still no beard, and the scar on his left cheek was still a fresh bleeding wound.

'Don't tell me... I'm back in the past?' he couldn't believe what he was seeing, shaking his head. He had seen a few unusual missions, but this one takes the cake. For he'll be cheering their own Danchou who's currently a teenager.

Tanaka realized he can't wait for him to call for Ouendan for it doesn't exist yet, so he makes his grand entrance without it. He steps in between the two sides, points out a hand and yells, "Young man, your fighting spirit!" and he gets ready to cheer.

The young Doumeki stared at Tanaka for awhile, then turns to his friend at the back, they both nod, "OSU!" they replied. Doumeki stands up getting ready for another round of beating.

"Great, more cheerleaders," a thug sighs and was about to go for Tanaka who was already into his enbu, but Doumeki blocks him and punches the taller man right on the face knocking the thug out cold instantly.

"Two more to go, Kai!" Doumeki's pretty fair-haired friend cheered in the background as well.

Doumeki took off his suit and rolls up the sleeves of his polo shirt. He takes a mic on his right hand and said, "Are you ready!"

This angered the two other thugs. They rushed at the young Danchou, who fought back beautifully with a few punches and kicks, and a clever use of the mic in his hand.

As Tanaka performed, he can't help but recall the first time he saw Doumeki-danchou cheering. He was a lonely genius student, sitting at the side of the classrom, completely ignored by his classmates... How he was so inspired to join Ouendan that time...

'Danchou...' he happily thought. He was just returning the favor and become their young Danchou's inspiration.

When the three thugs began limping away, Doumeki's friend happily hugged him for they're safe. Tanaka stood up straight and started, "Ouen Dai-" but a hand abruptly covers his mouth and he was hurriedly carried off to somewhere.

"Hey, Mister, Thank- huh?" Doumeki turns to where the man was to thank him, but he was nowhere to be found... He and his friend gave each other confused looks.

The man mysteriously disappeared the same way he appeared...

~o~

"Saito-san! Suzuki-san!" Tanaka can't tell if he was happy or not to see the backups. He didn't like how they pulled him out of there so suddenly, since he still wanted to at least have a little chat or something with the young Danchou.

"It took us a while to find you," Saito sighs, sounding exhausted, "But hey, you did well, rookie. You saved Ouendan," he pats Tanaka's back.

"Alright! Time to go home!" Suzuki punches the air, "Danchou's gonna be so happy once we get back, he's gonna treat us out! Miso Ramen!"

He couldn't recall how they got back, they simply did. As soon as they enter the Yuuhi base, Ippongi was still on the sofa and was back to switching from channel to channel. The leader stops when he heard the door open, "Whoa! You're back!" he happily greeted the three as they went in, "How was the trip? Adorable wasn't he?" his question was directed to Tanaka.

All four looks up when they heard the sound of their Danchou's slippers from upstairs. The man had left his room and was heading downstairs, "Good evening, everyone," he greeted.

"Osu! Good evening Danchou!" everyone greets back.

"How was your sleep, Danchou?" Ippongi inquires, grinning from ear to ear. He was expecting to hear something good.

"Hm?" Doumeki rakes his messy hair up then wears his ruined hat, "'Slept great," he began, "I know I dreamt of something, but I can't remember much... all I could recall was a hint of red and black..." his eyes were somewhere else, trying to find that dream in his mind. "Got any ideas?" a gloved left hand was now touching the scar on his left cheek.

The four innocently shook their heads.

"You don't make a lasting good impression on Danchou, Tanaka-kun..." Saito whispers, the other two snickers.

"Well? What did Senpai got when he cheered Danchou?" Tanaka was frowning up at their leader.

"Pointy, spikey... and loud, I think?" Suzuki began thinking.

Ippongi looked triumphant, raising his head and hair high, "It shows that Danchou didn't just noticed the uniform," Tanaka rolls his eyes.

"Hey, are you guys doing anything tonight?" their small talk was interrupted when Doumeki spoke. All four shook their heads once again. "I haven't had a bite since morning. Let's eat out, my treat," he smiled as his squad members cheered. He could clearly hear Suzuki's chanting of Dragon Ramen and Miso in between.

The Danchou went ahead outside with the backups while the Leader and the Rookie followed from behind.

"So we were just like his Guardian Angels back there?" Tanaka unsurely asks his senpai.

"Nah," Ippongi waves a hand, "He was just another kid who needed a little encouragement," then he shrugs, "Nothing special."

Tanaka laughs, "Another Job well done..."

"Yep, good job rookie. Good job..." Ippongi praises.

But Tanaka can't help but wonder if he really did went back to the past or they may have just entered their Danchou's dream instead. He shrugs the thought off and ran after their Danchou smiling, knowing he'll be enjoying their dinner tonight.

~Wakas

~o~

So random.

Yes, the thugs called young!Doumeki and his friend cheerleaders. Not sure if I'll be releasing that part of the story. Parallel or whatever I should call it... Danchou's younger days... an agent... haha *mumbles*

Still thinking twice on releasing my other Ouendan fics since it's all Danchou and I know my writing still sucks. I always end up running out of english. And I apologize in advance if you find ANY mistakes withe the editing and the likes, it's been a long time since I last posted in ffnet.

Anwyays...

Thanks for reading!

Salamat!

~~~~~Pictomancer Murasaki

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